Whole 30: Week 3 Recap

Week 3 was a great week. I always believe in starting the week with a challenging workout, a good breakfast and coffee (obviously), followed by my 85 snacks and healthy meals. Monday was no exception - I kicked off a ridiculously productive week and felt amazing. Another bonus: my skinny jeans finally fit again, woot woot. Most of the week continued that way. But then, we got invited to a last minute black tie event on Saturday and I had a little too much fun (read: wine). It was totally worth it because I had a great time, but I definitely felt the after-effects for a few days. More about that in the week 4 re-cap.

On to the rundown….

Tuesday’s Kitchfix meal - Ranch chicken with broccoli and sweet potato fries. 100% Whole 30 approved.

The Good:

• Tons of energy

• Great digestion

• Dewey skin

• Restful sleep

• Shiny hair

• Clothes fit better

The Bad:

• Minor headache

• Some dehydration

As you can see, much more good than bad. I sound like I’m really tooting my own horn in the beauty dept, which is not the aim, but that being said, I’m definitely feeling less haggard than my 3 weeks ago self. A fun side effect of eating so many nutrient dense foods is that your body has extra vitamins and minerals to use towards the “nonessential” functions of your body, meaning your hair, nails and skin get a little extra love and I’m definitely seeing a difference. After cleansing for two weeks my body has finally removed enough garbage to start digesting effectively, so my stomach feels great after every meal and the bloat and sluggishness have largely gone away. Sleep has also been good and I’ve been much less of a bear when my peppy husband drags me out of bed for our 5 am workouts.

The couple of bad symptoms were mostly related to water. While I did increase water intake, the few times I became dehydrated I experienced minor headaches. Unfortunately when I’m breastfeeding and also working out, it’s really easy to get dehydrated. More to work on next week.

Things I did differently Week 3:

• Drank more water (although probably still not enough)

• Mixed up the meal plan

• Exercised more

What did I eat?

This week we didn’t cook as much as last week and because we had a lot going on, we incorporated some Kitchfix meals and Trader Joe’s prepped veggies to make life easier. Kitchfix is great because there is no cooking involved, the food is really high quality and they offer Whole 30 options (along with other specific diet options). Plus it’s a Chicago-based business and I love supporting local. Because it’s a little bit more expensive, we ordered a few meals and mixed them with easy-to-prepare sides to make the meals stretch farther. They offer $20 off your first order with a referral so if you’re in Chicago and interested in trying it out, feel free to use this link.

Here’s a snippet of what our dinners looked like:

For this dinner, we literally dumped those two packages in a pan, heated it for 5 minutes, topped it with spinach and dinner was done. It was one of the KF large portions and that plus a side and some spinach was plenty for my husband and me. My kids had half of a medium portion of the ranch chicken meal (above) and shared the other half the next day for lunch.

For this dinner I sliced up a package of baby zucchinis, threw a package of TJs squash fries in a pan and broiled a piece of salmon for 5 minutes. To add some extra flavor and variety, we added some Kitchfix seafood risotto and it went perfectly with the other fish and veggies. The whole thing took 15 minutes, start to finish.

This was a late dinner thrown together after a client meeting - leftover Kale salad, boiled potatoes and leftover tuna salad from Sunday’s lunch over a bed of spinach. We go through a ridiculous amount of spinach every week.

On Thursday we had clean out the fridge night so I re-heated some Thai curry beef stew from the weekend - hearty and delicious.

Weeks one and two were a struggle to get through, but it’s really encouraging to finally feel like I’m making progress. My husband and I also have a good planning system down and we’ve changed most of the bad habits we fell into while I was pregnant. It feels good to be heading into summer with a little more bounce in my step.

If you’re looking to make some health changes this spring and want some guidance and support contact me here!